IBM has announced that they're joining forces with a game company to develop a …

Yesterday, IBM announced a project that will join forces with Brazilian game developer Hoplon Infotainment to develop a Cell-based mainframe system that will host massively multiplayer online games targeted at console and PC users. IBM is calling this system a "gameframe," and it will use Cell BE coprocessors to handle message passing and physics simulation for a Hoplon-developed MMOG middleware layer, called bitVerse, that the two companies are porting to Cell. The mainframe's general-purpose CPUs (probably POWER, but not specified yet) will handle aspects of the MMOG like logistics, connectivity, and the Websphere- and DB2-driven portions of bitVerse.

The system will be Linux-based, and though this isn't stated, it might be based on the IBM System Cluster 1350, if not identical to it. The System Cluster 1350 is a high-performance computing product with models that integrate the Cell BE as a coprocessor with general-purpose processors from Intel, AMD, or IBM. IBM's statement that the cluster can include "up to 336 RISC processors" strongly implies that the general-purpose CPU will come from the company's POWER line. The other, perhaps even more likely option is that it'll involve a System z mainframe put together with racks of IBM's Cell blades. The press release includes a quote from a System z manager, which may indicate that this system is involved.

While IBM has stated that multiple types of clients will be able connect to the system—consoles, PCs, and mobile devices—it's clear that the PS3 will be an ideal client for the system. The PS3 was made from the get-go to work as a networked device, and many of retiring PlayStation creator Kutaragi's more outlandish pronouncements about the console centered around this networked aspect of it. So the idea of connecting your PS3 to a mainframe that itself consists of Cell chips running game code actually fits surprisingly well with the vision that Kutaragi in this (in)famous interview with the EET:

Kutaragi: The Cell processor will completely change the concept of programming. Conventionally, programming has sought to pull out the best performance from a closed processor and a certain capacity memory. The Cell processor assumes the existence of multiple Cells.

The model image for the Cell-based network may be the Internet: Servers around the world form one virtual "computer," and each PC accesses it. One Cell or cluster of Cells can also function as a server; but whereas the present Internet mainly handles characters, applications on the Cell network will also handle semantics and reasoning.

Though sold as a game console, what will in fact enter the home is a Cell-based computer.

Some searching will turn up other prelaunch talk of a network of Cell processors ganged together to render virtual worlds, but after the console came to market the focus was squarely on the more mundane details of price, features, units shipped, titles available, and so on. Only with Sony's demo at the most recent GDC did the company begin to rekindle talk of a PS3-based online virtual world, and even then the PS3 figured in only on the client side.

Work and play

Though the Cell-based mainframe system is being pitched by IBM as a "gameframe," it's clear from the announcement that it won't be solely dedicated to virtual worlds and gaming. The company says they'll run commercial supercomputing workloads on it, with a special focus on simulations. So the online virtual world is one high-profile application for the cluster, but it definitely won't be the only one, or even the main one. IBM is keen to really showcase the power of Cell BE for HPC clusters, and this system will give them a test-bed for exactly that. Yet again, we're seeing the commodity gaming market providing the volume to drive a technology into the more rarified world of HPC.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see IBM try to rope PS3 customers who connect to the system into yielding some of their spare cycles to the cluster's commercial workloads. IBM could easily incentivize this by offering in-game goodies to users who agree to run parts of customers' jobs on their PS3s. Sony is openly talking about using networked PS3s in exactly this manner, so it's possible that IBM may also want to get in on the game. Cluster customers would probably pay well for the speedup that they would get from adding in the power of thousands of networked PS3s.

Update: Some combination of the IBM System z and a group of Cell blades is more likely to form the basis for this system than the IBM System 1350. As I note in the corrected text above, IBM's press release contains a quote from a System z manager who's talking about the security and stability of mainframes, so this suggests that System z is involved.